Law for the Commons

The Law for the Commons Wiki is a first attempt to survey the more significant realms of commons-based legal innovation today. Besides providing a rough inventory of dozens of projects and theaters of legal engagement, this wiki seeks to treat these very disparate bodies of law and legal activism as a single field of inquiry, Law for the Commons. If we are serious about catalyzing systemic change, we need to develop a coherent vision for the role that state law must play, however imperfectly, and develop legal and policy mechanisms that work.

LAW FOR THE COMMONS: PREMODERN SOURCES

The need for law to protect commons is mostly a modern phenomenon because commoners have historically relied upon social norms and traditions to maintain their systems of cooperative stewardship. That said, there are a number of significant premodern landmarks in law that take account of shared wealth and the means to protect it.

Law for the Commons in History

LAW FOR THE COMMONS IN OUR TIME

Historically, most commons have not needed nor sought formal protections of law. This has changed dramatically over the past 30-40 years, however, as global commerce, technology and conventional law have relentlessly expanded, superimposing the logic and values of markets on nearly every corner of the nature and social life.

Digital Commons

Examples of Digital Commons include free and open source software, Wikipedia in dozens of languages, more than 10,000 open access scholarly journals, the open educational resources movement (OpenCourseWare, open textbooks, etc.), the open data movement, various open design and manufacturing commons, and others. A variety of legal and technological innovations are now starting to address the structural limits of open platforms as vehicles for commoning.

INDIGENOUS AND SUBSISTENCE COMMONS

Indigenous Commons

The legal rights of the world’s 300 million indigenous peoples is of particular interest to commoners because both face similar philosophical and strategic challenges in coming to terms with (unresponsive, sometimes hostile) national and international law. In that sense, the legal fights of indigenous peoples may be a bellwether for commoners and a source of guidance.

Subsistence Commons

There are many subsistence commons that rely upon self-governed access and use of forests, fisheries, farmlands, coastal lands, bodies of water, wild game, and other natural resources. An estimated two billion people around the world depend on natural resource commons for their everyday (nonmarket) needs.

URBAN COMMONS AND LOCALISM

Urban Commons

In recent years there has been a big surge of interest in urban commons. Much of this activity is driven by people’s demands that everyone have access to public spaces and city facilities, not just to wealthy elites, developers and investors. Some examples of these are the Bologna Regulation for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons, the Sharing Cities Network, the Charter of the Eco-Quartier of Lausanne and others.

Localism

A subset of work on urban commons is specifically directed at fostering relocalization of the economy and governance. There are many notable legal initiatives that are expressly attempting to expand the self-determination of local communities.

WELCOME TO THE LAW FOR THE COMMONS WIKI

This wiki contains resources on the history of commons-based law and emerging legal innovations that seek to empower commoners and protect commons. Historically, commons have had a problematic relationship with conventional law, which generally reflects the mindset and priorities of the sovereign (monarch, nation-state, corporation) and not the lived experiences and practices of commoners. Still, in grappling with political, economic and legal realities, commoners often find ways to secure control over their common wealth, livelihoods and modes of commoning. Often, their solutions entail makeshift working arrangements with conventional law.

Such a struggle is one factor that led to the Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest in the early thirteenth century. It is also what is spurring many commoners today to invent creative new types of law – formal, social, technological – to protect their shared interests, assets and social relationships. This wiki is intended as an introduction to key documents in the history of Law for the Commons, and as a survey of some of the more notable initiatives to invent contemporary forms of commons law in a variety of contexts and locations. Find out more...

Who's Behind the Law for the Commons Wiki?

David Bollier[1] of the Commons Strategies Group prepared the initial curation of documents (August 15, 2015), identifying key clusters of commons-law activity and relevant literature and websites. The listings below derive from that initial compilation, and were augmented and placed on this wiki by Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation and co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group, in collaboration with Stacco Troncoso of the P2P Foundation and the Commons Media Collective.

This project, supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, is itself a commons, open to all contributions, and intended for the benefit of all who need it. If you'd like to add your feedback and help build this wiki, please read on.

WIKI HELP

Other Commons Resources

The Law for the Commons Wiki is a workspace and repository for Commons-related legal regimes, case studies and innovations. Related online resources include:

Commons Transition Home Page Contains a general overview on Commons Transition Strategies, articles, videos and a blog. It is the landing page for the Commons Transition Platform.

Commons Transition Stories Browse through our selection of featured essays, interviews and texts on Commons Transition projects and related initiatives.

The Commons Transition Wiki is our searchable database for policy papers and proposals related to Commons Transition. (The Common Law Wiki is contained within the Commons Transition Wiki)

The P2P Foundation Wiki is the world's largest online resource for P2P and Commons oriented knowledge. The P2P Foundation is an international organization focused on studying, researching, documenting and promoting peer-to-peer practices.

New Organizational Forms

There is a great deal of experimentation going on with new organizational forms because old structures, whether for-profit or nonprofit, do not adequately recognize and support the types of commoning that people are doing or aspire to do.

State Policies

The deficiencies of the nation-state as a form of governance are becoming increasingly clear. The mismatch between archaic forms of national and international law and the unmet needs of people and the environment is causing new tensions – as well as new proposals seeking to re-imagine state policy and commoning.

Stakeholder Trusts

Stakeholder Trusts are a species of large-scale commons that distributes revenues from a shared asset, typically a natural resource, and distributes it to citizens with a recognized “stake” in the resource. Stakeholder trusts are also touted as “common wealth trusts” that can safeguard natural and social resources that are our collective inheritance.